How to create a Vimeo multi-album video library.

Having scoured the web for about a week I recently came to the conclusion that there is no easy-access options out there that provide the necessary tools need to create a nice, clean, simple online video library. I also discovered a few problems with using well known video platforms such as YouTube for this purpose.

I didn’t wanna share my videos

As amazing as YouTube is, there is unfortunately no easy way to create a YouTube based video library if for whatever reason you don’t want your users to be able to share those videos. The private video setting requires YouTube users to to have a YouTube login to access it if you do decide to share it with them and the unlisted setting still allows the user to copy and share the URL to the videos you display.

YouTube isn’t a great option for this

I came to the conclusion that YouTube isn’t a great option for the purpose of building your own online video library. Enter Vimeo. Vimeo isn’t perfect either in my opinion in terms of some of the restrictions and limitations it currently has but for $6 a month and some creative API development, we were able to come up with a nice solution that I think will work for you.

Vimeo’s $6 per month fee + our $50 plugin

You can spend a ton more time searching the web for your perfect free solution or you can stop right here and take my word for it – there isn’t anything better out there than what we have to offer. All you have to do is go ahead and download and install our nifty online video library plugin, sign up for a $6 monthly (or $72 per year) Vimeo Plus account and you are off the races. $6 a month for video hosting that takes care of all the video processing, storage, buffering etc. is a pretty good deal on Vimeo’s end. You can download our free version of the plugin here.

How do I get the premium version with enhancements?

Just send us a quick email contact@basebuildguys.com, give us $50 and we will send the following enhancements code:

Infinite albums (at least as many as Vimeo allows)

Search functionality

See recent videos at the top of the page

Set the number of videos per page

Ask us if you need some extra customization too

How do I generate a vimeo access token to use the plugin?

There is a simple 5 minute procedure for creating an access token after you have created your vimeo account. These guys have created a nice little simple how-to on creating that access token. Once you have it just go the the BB Vimeo Albums plugin settings, enter it into the box and hit save! Then just embed your shortcodewherever you want it and you are off to the races. Note if you want to restrict access you can just use the native WordPress user auth function or any WordPress plugin that will restrict page or post access.

Can I control what my album and video “covers” look like (in the grid display)?

Yes – all that kind of malarky is editable in your Vimeo account. Just login and visit collections or videos and you can upload cover images that the plugin will pull and display on your WordPress page.

Online video library demo

Check out the demo that shows the 3 most recently posted videos and then below them a grid of all the albums in our Vimeo account. If you click on one of those albums it takes you to a page that displays all the videos in that account with some simple, clean pagination. It is mobile responsive so it works nicely on your phone too :).